On 9/11/07, Brian Pontarelli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > If we keep it a plugin then I would suggest removing zero-config from core > so that they don't conflict. I'd probably also want to rework the > DispatcherFilter to make it more pluggable so that the majority of the work > is from injections and then it can be changed without modifying the web.xml. > Lastly, the configuration providers need to be easier to setup. This would > probably require a more robust configuration mechanism that would pre-inject > configuration providers and then inject the rest of the container.
I think this is the strongest argument for plugging in as much as possible ourselves. If we can do it, then someone else can do it too! Don put in the plugin architecture less than a year ago, and our first stable release was only four months ago. Already, we have a couple of dozen plugins, including SmartURLs, and we're learning how to extract other functionality like Ajax and Portlets into plugins too. I'd say we should continue to exploit the plugin architecture, so that Struts becomes a lightweight core adorned with plugins. We should encourage people to think of Struts plugins they way we think about Eclipse or Maven plugins. > However, all that said, I think this should be in core. The beauty of > frameworks like Rails and Grails is that they give all the conventions right > out of the box. I feel like Struts should try to strive to match the ease of > these other frameworks. Otherwise, it requires the users to actually know > that the plugin exists, go find it, install it and then learn it all. I'd say it's way too early to say we've hit the best and brightest way to do this. (Or that Rails or Grails has either!) If we starting rolling things like this into the core, then as you pointed out, we start to foreclose possibilities for alternate plugins, or at least make it harder for other people to innovate. There is a lot more to Rails or Grails type functionality than zero configuration and code behinds. To really do "Struts on Rails", we'd need to encourage people to use Maven prototypes to create starter applications, which could easily include items like the CodeBehind 2 plugin, along with starter actions and pages, test cases, and so forth. We also need to think about items like Hibernate or iBATIS plugins. One compromise would be to keep CodeBehind/ZeroConfig as a plugin, in its own JAR, but to ship it in the struts-lib distribution, and make it a standard part of any applications or prototypes we offer. People won't have to go and get it, because it will already be there. But, if someone wants to try something different, they can pluck it out. -Ted. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
